Foreign students and scholars are often at the center of scientific advancement made up more than a third of U.S. doctorate recipients in 2006. And in the last century, more than one in three American winners of the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology were foreign-born

The Institute of International Education reports that during the 2006-2007 school year, the number of foreign students enrolled in colleges in the United States hit almost 583,000. That is three percent more than the year before and the first increase since before the 2001 terrorist attacks. As VOA's Alex Villarreal reports, international students contribute greatly to American society, and U.S. officials want to make sure they keep coming.